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Ex Wife is Accessing my Credit Info

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tp2013
New Member

Ex Wife is Accessing my Credit Info

HELP!  I got an email from my extremely bitter ex-wife and in it she mentions the exact dollar amount I made last month and that my credit card payments last month were so high that it must be nice.  I am trying to find out how someone who is not supposed to have access to your bank accounts or credit information can access this stuff.  And then I want to know how to stop it.  She is not on any of the accounts and I have switched banks.  I have two high schools kids with her but I live on the opposite coast from her.  Never late on Child Support but she is just bitter that I divorced her and took her lifestyle away from her.  Any thoughts and suggestions??

Thanks for your help!

Message 1 of 17
16 REPLIES 16
Ldulsi
New Member

Re: Ex Wife is Accessing my Credit Info

Did you change all your email passwords and any other account passwords to difficult passwords that she couldn't guess? Your email password is probably the absolutely most important password of all. Use two step authentication if at all possible for that account and all other accounts if at all possible.

 

Credit info is pretty easy. SSN and some info on your past. She probably knows what car loan you had in a certain year, who your mortgage was in a certain year, your address a certain year and the age range of your father which is more than I needed to get my free full credit report online. I could get my parents report and probably even my sisters report if I wanted to. It would be fraud I'd expect but the credit report website only has so many ways to confirm who you ware.

 

Besides getting into your email if you might have opened a new account and gave her something by check or transfer she could have registered for online access so make sure even if you didn't create access that no one else did by talking to your bankers. If you own child support etc that info might be going to the court anyway to adjust payment and whether allowed directly or through a lawyer that isn't 100% ethical she might have seen it.

 

 

Message 7 of 17
notfancy
Valued Contributor

Re: Ex Wife is Accessing my Credit Info

Yup, make sure your email and all of your passwords are secure. Make sure your security questions for everything is something she can't guess.

 

Pull all of your credit reports and check for accuracy. Place fraud flags on them as well. Also, save that email and consider filing a police report. What she did was fraud. She had no basis or business for pulling your personal information.

625 EQ FICO Current Score: 660 DCU EQ FICO/ 645 Scorewatch EQ FICO , EX FICO 664, TU FICO 737 (08/2014)
Goal Score: 700   Seedling again as of 07/29/14
Message 9 of 17
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Ex Wife is Accessing my Credit Info

I wouldn't file a police report against the mother of my children for this. Just change all your passwords, consider requesting new card #s from the CC companies and tell her as an adult you expect her to respect your privacy.
Message 10 of 17
pizzadude
Credit Mentor

Re: EX Wife Accessing Credit Report


@tp2013 wrote:

HELP!  I got an email from my extremely bitter ex-wife and in it she mentions the exact dollar amount I made last month and that my credit card payments last month were so high that it must be nice.  I am trying to find out how someone who is not supposed to have access to your bank accounts or credit information can access this stuff.  And then I want to know how to stop it.  She is not on any of the accounts and I have switched banks.  I have two high schools kids with her but I live on the opposite coast from her.  Never late on Child Support but she is just bitter that I divorced her and took her lifestyle away from her.  Any thoughts and suggestions??

Thanks for your help!


Could be a couple of different things, maybe she hired a private investigator to dig up information on you.   Obviously your income wouldn't be shown on your credit reports, so there's likely some other source of info.   However I'd recommend looking at all of your credit reports for any inquiries or anything else that seems odd.

March2010 FICO® ~ 695 TU, 653 EQ, 697 EX
Message 2 of 17
tp2013
New Member

Re: EX Wife Accessing Credit Report

Can a private investigator or attorney access information without legal authorization from me or a court?

Message 3 of 17
pizzadude
Credit Mentor

Re: EX Wife Accessing Credit Report


@tp2013 wrote:

Can a private investigator or attorney access information without legal authorization from me or a court?


If they are accessing your CRA records via your credentials then no.   Other sources of information are out there and may not require you to authorize.

March2010 FICO® ~ 695 TU, 653 EQ, 697 EX
Message 4 of 17
Involver
Valued Contributor

Re: EX Wife Accessing Credit Report

Sounds like a good thing this is your EX.

 

I would change all of your passwords to your finances and probably put a freeze on your CRs.  

Message 5 of 17
Jkrause702
Regular Contributor

Re: EX Wife Accessing Credit Report

Here's the thing... as your ex-wife she most likely KNOWS all of the pertinent info that she would need to know to be able to purchase a copy online, or even obtain a free one. She would know your social security # in all likelihood, and probably know the answer to enough of the verification questions to be able to claim that she was you... 

From a law enforcement officer's perspective I would check all of your soft pulls on all three bureaus, IF I'm not mistaken the softpulls can show each time it is pulled even if by you through a third party vendor like EID or some monitoring service etc... If you see a soft pull that you can be sure isn't you then you know that there is a fair chance it was done by her. I would then contact the CRA and report this to them, maybe they can lock out the vendor that it was recieved through.... In terms of prosecution for obtaining it without authorization I am not sure of a criminal offense, as this would vary by state or federal law depending on where you live.  However IF you managed to get it investigated they could likely go through the company that did the request and identify the IP address it was accessed from which would prove it... then again that is if you want the drama of going after her criminally or civilly. It would be between you and the CRA's to determine a way for you to ensure that only you or the creditors that you specifically authorize have access to your reports if thats as far as you want to take it. I imagine that you wouldn't be the first person with this issue as it is typical for ex-spouses to know enough information about each other to pull that off.







Message 6 of 17
Burned2manybridgesB4
Valued Contributor

Re: EX Wife Accessing Credit Report

FREEZE THEM ALL. WENT THROUGH THIS A WHILE BACK.

Message 8 of 17
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